The Betrayal

March 1, 2022
Kentucky's Mitch McConnell has been the Republican leader of the Senate since the Obama administration and has built a reputation as the most ruthlessly partisan, obstructionist leader of the Senate since--well, since ever. In this well-researched and thoroughly documented history, Shapiro details how McConnell obstructed a number of Democratic social initiatives. For instance, he fought Obama to kill or gut the Affordable Care Act as well as blocking some of Obama's judicial appointments, most famously for the Supreme Court. On the flip side, McConnell served as an enabler for Donald Trump. Not only did he ensure Trump's acquittal during two separate impeachment trials, he pushed through three Trump Supreme Court nominations with record-setting alacrity. Shapiro's chronicle doesn't stop there--the extent of McConnell's scorched-earth politics makes it clear why Washington has been either deadlocked or regressive. Anyone interested in social justice or the advancement of the ideals of democracy can read this chronicle and come away knowing one of the principal political villains of the twenty-first century.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 14, 2022
Historian and lawyer Shapiro (Broken) argues in this blistering if familiar takedown that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has prioritized his own career and the Republican agenda above America’s interests. Though the “democratized” Senate of the 1960s and ’70s “met the challenge of history” by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating Richard Nixon’s role in the Watergate break-in, today’s Senate Republicans are committed solely to obstructing Democrats and toeing the party line, according to Shapiro. He delves into McConnell’s efforts to stop the passage of the Affordable Care Act, prevent President Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice after Antonin Scalia’s death, and oppose “blue state bailouts” during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Showcasing McConnell’s willingness to compromise his own beliefs and the country’s security to achieve political goals, Shapiro notes that McConnell voted to acquit former president Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot, despite declaring at the impeachment trial that Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.” Though he doesn’t break much new ground, Shapiro draws an incisive portrait of McConnell and credibly concludes that he and his fellow Republicans have broken the congressional system. This forceful critique hits home.

March 15, 2022
Another painful account of the decline of American political discourse. During a four-decade career in Washington, D.C., Shapiro served 12 years in various Senate staff positions, but only during the 20th century, when that institution functioned more or less as the Founders intended. He writes that its decline began during the 1990s but accelerated two decades later, when "Mitch McConnell and his Republican caucus repeatedly and deliberately took actions they knew to be wrong and failed to take actions they knew to be right." Entering the Senate in 1984, McConnell quickly established his hard-conservative reputation, abetted by the pugnacious Newt Gingrich, among others. By 2008, McConnell had risen to minority leader and proclaimed a goal of making newly elected Barack Obama a one-term president. His tactic was not to propose alternative legislation but to oppose everything. He did not have the votes to defeat the Affordable Care Act, but his denunciation of "Obamacare" as socialized medicine resonated with voters, who gave Republicans a victory in the 2010 elections. Even today, polls reveal that Americans tend to deplore "Obamacare" but approve of the Affordable Care Act. Becoming Senate majority leader in 2015, he blocked nearly all of Obama's judicial nominees, including to the Supreme Court, resulting in a massive influx of conservative judges after the election of Donald Trump. Aware, like most Republicans, that the new president was a loose cannon but wildly popular, McConnell kept his focus on conservative interests and electable Republicans, even when this irritated Trump, who preferred sycophants. Although he received no thanks, McConnell quashed potentially embarrassing investigations and ensured that the two impeachment trials fizzled. This is an informative but deeply discouraging book; few Republicans will read it, and few Democrats will quarrel with its conclusions. In the past, Congress has endured periods of paralysis, corruption, and violence but then recovered. Readers can only hope the current breakdown is temporary. A vivid attack on "the most partisan Senate leader in modern history" that is unlikely to change anyone's mind.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.